Liu Zongzhou did not feel uncomfortable because of the words of the Apocalypse, he said: "Your Majesty, the minister also knows that the interests of the upper and lower levels have not been satisfied at the same time, because the interests of the upper and lower levels have not been taken into account in the prior planning, which is exactly what the minister wants to explain today, and it is also an unsatisfactory place in the experiment. ”

Tianqi nodded and said: "The inconsistency between the top and bottom leads to a loss on one side, and it can be said that it is the ordinary people who suffer, because our officials all convey orders from top to bottom, just like the beginning said, no matter whether the big or small officials are at any level, no official dares to overturn the orders handed down from the top to the bottom." The people can only suffer for two reasons, one is to suffer under the coercion of power, and the other is to suffer under the deception of others, either is enough to make the people see officials as bullies and liars, which is not a good thing for the image of Ming officials. ”

Both Tianqi and Liu Zongzhou's words illustrate one thing, that is, theoretically speaking, the interests of the state and the interests of all the people should be the same, but in actual and specific situations, there is often a phenomenon of opposition between the upper and lower levels. When there is an opposition and contradiction between the upper and lower levels and one side needs to make concessions, it is absolutely the people who make unconditional concessions, because the officials who handle matters are appointed by the higher levels and not elected by the lower levels. It is precisely because the butt determines the position, whose bowl speaks for whom, that all officials will find ways to make the people back down when dealing with these things, whether it is coercion or deception, only the end is considered and the means are not considered.

When there is a contradiction between the interests of the state and the interests of the people, it has been the people who have made unconditional concessions for thousands of years, but because of this, the ordinary people have not been of the same mind as the rulers for thousands of years. For the newly appointed officials, people can play the sign of "the disaster star retreats and the lucky star comes" one after another, and it is rare to see the people sacrifice their lives in order to protect the old rulers, and the reason for this is that this kind of unconditional obedience and concession makes the people have no sense of closeness to the officials and no sense of identity with the country. Now the elected officials are to stimulate the people's sense of autonomy and let the people increase their identification and loyalty to the country, so the people's unconditional concession must be changed.

Liu Zongzhou saw that Tianqi understood what he meant, so he said: "The minister knows that the main reason for the inconsistency between the upper and lower levels is that we do not really understand the needs of the people. According to this inference, the minister wondered if the elected township chief could not only convey the orders of the superiors, but also summarize the needs of the people, so that they could integrate the orders of the superiors and the needs of the people, so as to achieve the effect of consistency between the upper and lower levels. ”

Liu Zongzhou's words made Tianqi feel very funny, and even Gao Panlong next to him couldn't help it, his words could only exist in theory and could not have the possibility of operation. When the order of the higher authorities is conveyed, it does not matter what the people think and think, and the only way is to cooperate with the implementation, and there is no room for the township chief to listen to the people's opinions and synthesize.

Seeing that Tianqi smiled but didn't speak, Liu Zongzhou also felt that his words were a little unrealistic, he coughed lightly and said: "Let the township chief want to combine the county's orders with the needs of the people, this is just an idea of the minister, it is impossible to ask for this in detail, you can change it to achieve this purpose." ”

Tianqi asked strangely, "I don't know how Lord Liu is going to change?" ”

Liu Zongzhou said: "In the past, there was only one county order in each county, and any decisions made in this county were under the control of the county order. The minister wondered if the township could also become a two-person system in this way, that is, let the township elder and the township chief exist at the same time, the township chief was young and strong, and his legs and feet could allow him to mainly convey the orders of his superiors, and the township elders could be used specifically to listen to opinions. In this way, two people can do things together to take into account the different needs between the upper and lower levels, and at the same time, they can also use the experience and prestige of the old villagers, after all, there must be a reason for their existence after so many years. ”

Tianqi thought for a while and said: "There is a supervisor who is closely supervised by the administrative officials, and all provinces, states, and counties have said that it is good for so many years, and it is indeed a good way for no one to be corrupt and no one to be rigid for their own use, and now the township is also following the example, there should be no problem." Even if the power to appoint and dismiss officials is decentralized, the administrative officials are all appointed by the higher authorities and reported to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the supervisors are directly appointed and managed by the Metropolitan Procuratorate. ”

Liu Zongzhou said: "Because the township level is the lowest level of power that the emperor has just decided to descend, and below is the village managed by each family itself, so the minister thinks that the township chief and the village elders are elected by the people. The difference between the two is only that the requirements of personal conditions are different, the requirements of the township chief are young and strong, and the brain is flexible to obey the orders of the county, and the requirements of Xiang Lao are to be highly respected and able to listen to the needs of the people below. In terms of the method of generation, there can only be one township chief who wants to manage people, and the township elders don't need to manage people with a black face, they just need to listen to opinions, so one or two can be seven or eight, which is not too much, anyway, the township elders don't need to give money. ”

Liu Zongzhou's words made Tianqi feel that there was some truth, the village elders were the spokesmen of the local forces, and they used to judge right and wrong together if something happened together, and if someone they judged was not satisfied, they could go to the county to fight a lawsuit. Most of these township elders are old men, and when they are old, they are more experienced in dealing with things more fairly, and they have blocked a lot of things and troubles for the county, if tens of thousands of people in a county have trivial matters to be dealt with by the county order, then they will really be busy to death, this is what Liu Zongzhou said that the existence of has its meaning.

Adding a Jiupin township chief to remove some unqualified township elders seems to be able to help the county reduce a lot of things on the surface, but because the township chief is too busy to solve the problems in the township, once the people make an accident and the township chief can't suppress it, it will cause more trouble. Now allowing the township chief and the township elders to coexist is equivalent to adding a township chief representing the county to the previous pattern, and the previous horizontal will union has added a top-down force, which may be better than the previous simple deliberative way of dealing with problems.

Tianqi thought about it and didn't come up with anything wrong, so he said to Liu Zongzhou and Gao Panlong: "Since you have this idea, then go ahead and implement it, anyway, you are not afraid of any big problems, do it to summarize our experience and spread it out, and if you make mistakes, we will summarize the lessons and correct them in time, and one day you will do it perfectly." ”

Apocalypse's words made Liu Zongzhou very happy, and Gao Panlong asked at this time: "Your Majesty, the minister still has a question in his heart, even if those village elders can accept the opinions of the people, summarize them and react upwards, it will be a long time later. So what should we do when the orders of the county were not recognized by the people at that time? Is it mainly for the township chief to forcibly implement it or mainly for the village elders to advise? ”

Tianqi glanced at Gao Panlong and said with a smile: "Lord Gao is not happy, you should ask whether you should use deception or force, we have discussed this at the beginning, there is no need to change the words, as long as there is no rebellion, you can't use force to deceive." At that time, it was unrealistic to let the county's orders be the same as the needs of the people, but we must not let the people be dissatisfied with the same matter for the second time, only in this way will we have the confidence to deceive people, and we will not be speechless when the people expose them. ”

Gao Panlong said: "Deceiving people will naturally be exposed, what can the emperor say if he means being exposed?" ”

"Of course," said Apocalypse, "as long as you are not lying to others a second time on the same issue, you can justifiably say that we have discussed your request and made great concessions on the matter. Suffice it to say that an official who does not deceive people in the current situation is not a qualified official, and an official who deceives the people twice on the same incident is an incompetent official. ”

After Gao Panlong and Liu Zongzhou left, Tianqi continued to read the article written by Qian Qianyi, which said that there are more and more officials in the Ming Dynasty, and most of them are people who manage the same affairs. After reading Qian Qianyi's article, Tianqi was a little strange, and felt that Qian Qianyi obviously didn't pay attention to his position when he said this, and other people said this only Qian Qianyi couldn't say it, because he was the teacher of King Xin.

A person who does things and speaks has a certain purpose and principles, and there are people who talk nonsense without a purpose, but it is absolutely impossible for such a madman who likes to talk openly to become a minister of the DPRK and the Central Committee. Like Xu You, who washed his ears and didn't listen to the voice of the dead country in prehistoric legends, and Mi Heng, who scolded Cao Cao naked during the Three Kingdoms, it should be said that they are all very talented people, but they are not reused because they are too arrogant. Qian Qianyi is not an arrogant person, on the contrary, according to the apocalypse, Qian Qianyi is still a very clever person, and the reason why he will stand up and have an opinion on the auxiliary government supervision system that has been implemented for several years, and he has also obtained the consent of the Holy Academy and released it, there must be a certain reason for him.

Tianqi thought about it and asked a little eunuch to inform Qian Qianyi and ask him to come to the palace the next day to explain his article, among the few young people in the government council, Tianqi valued Qian Qianyi, Huang Zunsu, Zhou Yanru and other young people, and he didn't want a frivolous and arrogant person to appear among these young people he valued.

The next morning, Qian Qianyi came to the Qianqing Palace, and Tianqi met him in the back study, when it was already very cold in October, everyone put on thick cotton jackets to keep out the cold, although Qian Qianyi was also dressed thickly, but he was very energetic, which shows that he made certain preparations for the explanation of his words and deeds.

After Tianqi asked Qian Qianyi to sit down, he didn't ask about the newspaper article, he first asked: "Now that the north and south are experimenting with elected officials, what do you think about this matter?" ”